1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to a hybrid system and a method to prepare and dispense both a substantially non-foaming and foaming gas-infused beverages. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a system and a method to prepare and dispense both non gas-infused and gas-infused beverages while the system has a low operation pressure.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of nitrogen gas to store and dispense gas-infused beverages such as beer and soda is conventionally known. Further, infusion of other non-gas-infused beverages, such as coffee or tea, with a gas to form, for example, a carbonated beverage, is also known. However, for restaurants or commercial establishments to offer such beverages for sale to consumers, a separate system is required to infuse such beverages with a gas to form gas-infused beverages in addition to a system that dispenses the beverages themselves without infusion of gas or with a reduced infusion of gas. There are no known dual functioning integrated systems to dispense both non gas-infused beverages, such as non gas-infused coffee, and beverages infused with an amount of gas that is greater than the non gas-infused beverages forming the gas-infused beverages, such as gas-infused coffee, for example, nitrogenated coffee. Moreover, to develop such a dual functioning integrated system presents many challenges relating to regulating pressure in the system: (1) to avoid undesirable gas levels and foams in the non gas-infused beverage, and (2) backflow from the gas infusion vessel into the non gas-infused beverage stream. A sufficient pressure is present to accomplish infusing preprocessed beverage with a gas forming a gas-infused beverage that is then flowed to a dispenser to dispense the gas-infused beverage. In addition, a sufficient pressure is present to generate a flow of the non gas-infused beverage to a dispenser to dispense the non gas-infused beverage. If a non gas-infused beverage is provided from a single source, it is ensured that (1) the non gas-infused beverage is received by a dispenser to dispense the non gas-infused beverage at an acceptable low pressure to dispense the non gas-infused beverage, and (2) that the non gas-infused beverage is received by a gas infusion vessel for infusion of the non gas-infused beverage with additional gas at a sufficient pressure to allow for gas infusion of the non gas-infused beverage, thereby forming an gas-infused beverage with an increased level of gas to produce a dispensed beverage with desirable foaming.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system or a method that prepares and dispenses both non gas-infused and gas-infused beverages.